What is a Web Safe Font?

Most personal computers come with a set of installed fonts. The computer manufacturer installs these fonts on the operating system. You also have the ability to add additional fonts on your own if you desire. The problem with fonts and computer manufacturers is that they all install different sets of fonts. To the casual computer user it is not an issue. To a Web Developer it is a different story. When you are creating a web page you need to keep in mind that if you use a font that a visitor does not have, the page will most likely be very unattractive.

To insure that your pages will look great on every web users browser, you simply need to Web safe fonts. Web safe fonts are a collection of highly common fonts that come installed on just about every computer that is produced. Some old computers, like the one at my in-laws, may not have the fonts that we consider web safe but this will surely be a minority.

Why Should I Use a Web Safe Font?

As a web developer I am clear that my clients have a certain look that they are trying to achieve on their pages by using more artistic fonts. From an artistic standpoint it is great from a usability standpoint it can be trouble. However creating a website that looks good on my browser is a failure if it does not look good across the web to the people that your website is intended for. I wish that it worked differently but it doesn’t for now. My job is to advise my client that we need to do our best with the fonts that are known to work well on the web.